The story
- Old French · derived fromlobeor“swindler”
- English todaylubber
From Middle English, perhaps from Old French lobeor (“swindler”), from Old French lober to mock, to jeer, or of Scandinavian origin, compare dialectal Swedish lubber. The grasshopper was likely so called after sense 1 (“a clumsy or lazy person”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.